I haven't tried smoking a brisket in a  while.  I"ve got other cuts of meat down pretty good, but the brisket remains a curiosity, as I have followed instructions on how to smoke it and have come up with dry meat.  Which isn't very good.  At all.

The last brisket I did came close, tho.  I just got done reading a site that says to cook it 12 hours at 225 or until 195 to 205 degrees.  Perhaps I'm getting it up to 195 too quick, I'm not really sure, but it takes half a day to get it there in a smoker.  Well brisket is finally on sale again, so I'm going to try this again.  Probably tomorrow.  I guess I could today but I'd have to run up to the store right now.

There is one thing tho that I read that might be making the difference: I haven't trimmed the fat off the meat down to 1/4 inch, and apparently not doing that can mean the difference between success and failure.  So, this next one I"m following the prep instructions to a T and see what I come up with.

I just didn't want to try brisket at regular price - it's not the cheapest cut of meat and if it gets ruined, it ends up being dog food.  At least there's one upside to  a failed attempt - the dogs will wolf the stuff down like it's prime rib.  Oh, I want to try smoking a prime rib.  That would be easy, much easier than this brisket thing.  Just smoke it to about 122 degrees, pull it out, let it stand for 20 minutes and walaah.  perfect prime rib.  Or pull it out earlier for redder meat.  But, not everyone likes eating next to raw meat like I do so I usually cook it til it's somewhere in the medium rare range.  Still red, still nice and tender, still juicy, just a bit more cooked.

Kroger's is having a meat sale extravaganza, they usually do the week of/before Memorial Day. The brisket is $1.67 per pound, St. Louis style pork ribs are buy one get one free (yes, I know they usually up the price of it for such sales but it's still a great deal), T-Bone steak is $4.77 per pound ( that's also a great price), I think there's something else, salmon I believe also on sale.  We're going shopping today to stock up the second freezer.  After this, I'm going to stop buying meat for a while and start working on emptying out the first freezer in using up everything that's in there.

Anyway, I may try the brisket tomorrow.  I've really got the temperature thing down pretty good on the chip smoker, it's not that hard to keep a constant temperature as long as you keep an eye on it here and there and adjust the air intake and the exhaust to keep that temp in as near the same range as possible.  Firing it up, you just have to give yourself time to drench the charcoal, light it up, get it hot and then get your chips and even small logs on it.  Walmart sells huge bags of small logs of various types which are perfect.  You put one log in the firebox, put some wood chips around it, get the fire going and then shut it up, close up the air intake and walaah, you are in the 230 to 250 temp range.

That isn't the only thing going on today, but Taylor asked if we could go together.  Sure, why not? Hopefully earlier than later tho.

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Well, yesterday was hopping. Not just to the store for meat sales, but also to Lowe's for flowers and then, I ended up buying a smoker/propane grill combo that I've been looking at for at least a year now.  Finally just said let's do it, tho she wasn't asking me to buy one. The current grill is busted, the bottom fell out of it and it's time to move on from it. It did it's duty well for at least 3 years.  Considering how much grilling we do, that's a long time for a grill to survive.  The one I bought is much heavier duty, actual steel plate versus the - whatever that thin stuff is they use on those propane only grills - and should last many years. 

But, we busted @$$ yesterday and did a massive property clean up both front and back yard.  It looks so much better out there now.  We should do that once a month and just keep up with it. But by the time we got everything done, planting those flowers was out of the question.  It was 5 pm and I had had enough.  So had everyone else. We went out to a mexican food restaurant where I had, finally, some authentic carne asada steak. I love that stuff.  The kids - mostly - behaved for that outing.

Arriving back home, Taylor apparently had a wild idea to jump right back in the truck and head over to a manicure place with James. Will you watch the boys? Sure! I was done for the day, the boys are relatively easy to watch since they mostly entertain themselves.  Shortly after they left, a pair of their friends showed up, lol.  I entertained them for an hour or so before James and Taylor finally showed back up and then absolved myself of social functions as I was exhausted. 

It's now Sunday morning.  I'm going to smoke a brisket in the new smoker, tho I need to get out there and get it going so I can get the smoker cleared out of any harmful chemicals- ie: smoke in it for a while before even attempting to throw any meat on there.  And of course the flowers to plant - later on.  They won't die if we don't get to it this morning lol. 

Yes, I have the brisket warming up to room temp in the kitchen, really need to get this show on the road.